When a promotion means paying more for health insurance

DEAR CARRIE: I was recently promoted to the management ranks at work. Much to my surprise, the promotion pushed me into a new benefits group that requires me to pay several thousand dollars more annually toward my health insurance to receive basically the same medical and dental benefits as I received in my previous position. My question is not about the legality of this, but rather, how common it is. People I have spoken with said they expected the benefits to be better up the ranks.

— Expensive Promotion

DEAR EXPENSIVE PROMOTION: The practice is not unheard of, but it’s hard to determine how common it is.

Brian D. Sackstein, a certified public accountant who specializes in the health care and nonprofit services at Marcum in Melville, explained how you could wind up paying more for benefits as you move up the ranks.

Benefits are a recruitment tool, and in that mode, companies are willing to shoulder more of the costs, he said.

“In order to entice folks to work for the organization, [it] may pay a larger portion of the benefits’ overall cost,” he said.

Then as those employees are promoted to management and are paid more, employers may contribute less toward those workers’ benefits.

“It does happen,” he said.

A second instance in which you might be asked to pay more for benefits after joining management depends on how wide the participation in the health plan is. The company may require managers to cover their own benefits if many members of the executive team have outside health coverage, thus making it too costly for the company to maintain a health plan for them.

In short, what managers end up paying depends on their employer.

“It is company by company specific,” Sackstein said.

DEAR CARRIE: I work for a major package-shipping company and belong to a union. I am starting a new full-time job that requires me to work in the building for four hours, take lunch and then travel in my personal car to another company location to help a driver. I feel I should be compensated for that traveling time. What do you think? Also, it’s my understanding that since I am required to wear a uniform I can change on company time. My union rep says there are exceptions to that rule. It that true? — Uniform Travel

DEAR UNIFORM: Regarding your first question, if you are an hourly employee, then when you drive from the office to a worksite, you should be considered on the clock. The company doesn’t have to reimburse you for mileage on your car, but it has to pay you wages for that travel time.

As for being on the clock when you change into a uniform, your union rep is right: The rule has its exceptions. If the uniform is a jacket that takes just seconds to put on, that activity wouldn’t be considered part of your workday. Or if the “preparatory or concluding activity,” that is the donning or doffing of a uniform, “is not closely related to the performance of the principal activities” of your job, then you don’t have to be paid for that time, states Section 551.412 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

Here’s when you have to be paid for changing: If wearing a uniform is related to your principal work activity and is “indispensable” to that work, and the time spent changing totals more than 10 minutes per workday, the regulation says. Then your employer “shall credit all of the time spent in that activity” as work time.

You mentioned that you are a union employee. So check to see if your contract includes some provisions on changing in and out of uniforms.